diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/components/SchedulingTasks.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/components/SchedulingTasks.java
index cf594ed..7901d53 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/components/SchedulingTasks.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/components/SchedulingTasks.java
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ public class SchedulingTasks {
         // When the user requests the numOfPayloads for a given datasourceI, the app will return the result immediately.
         // It will be a quick O(1) GET operation in the ConcurrentHashMap.
 
-        if ( ! statsService.gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource()
+        if ( ! statsService.gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource(0)
             && runningFirstTime )
             PdfAggregationStatisticsApplication.gentleAppShutdown();
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsService.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsService.java
index a7c405d..d3fb2de 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsService.java
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ package eu.openaire.pdf_aggregation_statistics.services;
 
 public interface StatsService {
 
-    boolean gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource();
+    boolean gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource(int retryCount);
 
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsServiceImpl.java b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsServiceImpl.java
index 9c198eb..e41a9e7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsServiceImpl.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/openaire/pdf_aggregation_statistics/services/StatsServiceImpl.java
@@ -28,8 +28,13 @@ public class StatsServiceImpl implements StatsService {
     public static final ConcurrentHashMap<String, Integer> datasourcesWithNumOfPayloads = new ConcurrentHashMap<>(105_000);  // The number of datasources is around 10_000.
 
 
-    public boolean gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource()
+    public boolean gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource(int retryCount)
     {
+        if ( retryCount > 10 ) {
+            logger.error("Could not find the requested payload-type table in an non-merging state, after " + retryCount + " retries!");
+            return false;
+        }
+
         final String getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery =
                 "select d.id, count(p.id) as payload_count from " + databaseName + ".datasource d\n" +
                         "            join " + databaseName + ".publication pu on pu.datasourceid=d.id\n" +
@@ -54,12 +59,34 @@ public class StatsServiceImpl implements StatsService {
             logger.error("The number of payloads per datasource could not be retrieved from the database \"" + databaseName + "\" using the getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery: " + getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery);
             return false;
         } catch (Exception e) {
-            logger.error("Problem when executing \"getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery\": " + getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery, e);
-            return false;
+            String exMsg = e.getMessage();
+            if ( (exMsg != null) && (exMsg.contains("Could not resolve table reference") || exMsg.contains("Failed to open HDFS file")) ) {
+                sleep2mins();    // The tables may be under merging at the moment, so sleep a bit and try again.
+                return gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource(++retryCount);
+            } else {
+                // If such an unknown error appears during initialization, it is fatal but not something that is so remarkable to completely avoid deploying the app to save time..
+                // We allow for 1 retry, 2 Minutes later. If the error appears again then the app will shutdown.
+                logger.error("Problem when executing \"getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery\": " + getNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasourceQuery, e);
+                if ( retryCount == 0 ) {
+                    sleep2mins();   // The DB may have some failure
+                    return gatherNumberOfPayloadsPerDatasource(++retryCount);
+                } else  // Already 1 retry happened and failed for the unknown error.
+                    return false;   // If the 1st retry for the unknown error failed, then do not try again.
+                // When this method returns, the app will either shut down if it is during initialization or it will ignore it and retry in 6 hours.
+            }
         }
     }
 
     // To get the human-friendly timestamp format from the BigInt in the database:
     // select from_timestamp(CAST(CAST(`date` as decimal(30,0))/1000 AS timestamp), "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS") from payload
 
+
+    private void sleep2mins() {
+        try {
+            Thread.sleep(120_000);  // Sleep for 2 mins.
+        } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
+            logger.warn("Sleeping was interrupted!");
+        }
+    }
+
 }